redmeansdistortion

I like short rods in smaller rivers where there may be a lot of brush to contend with when casting. My river rods range from 4'6" to 5'6" and my favorite is a 4'10". They're also much easier to cast one handed which I greatly prefer. I typically don't reach for something 6' or greater unless there's a lot of wide open space or I'm fishing from a boat.

Amazon Japan frequently has nice deals and they ship fast. I received every one of my reels from there within 5 days. I paid $181 shipped for my Alphas CT SV 6.3, $190 for my Alphas CT SV 7.2, and $170 for my Revo ALC-BF7. All three reels were priced well below the other main JDM sites, even when factoring in the cost of shipping.

This was a build done for a friend of mine's 40th birthday, paid for by his wife. I just completed it last night. All parts are brand new, no donor reels involved. He bought a new float rod for steelhead a month back and asked his wife to get him a reel to go with it for his birthday. New production 5500 C3 spool and line guide New old stock Royal 4500 side plates 5500CS Rocket chrome frame 80mm handle and 50mm star wheel from Simon Shimomura Double bearing level wind Avail ported double bearing idler gear Backup anti-reverse ratchet to accommodate the IAR bearing Stainless steel 5.3:1 gears and bearing supported drive shaft from Rocket Reel Company Abu CS Pro Rocket clutch washer and Bakelite brake blocks Boca Lightning spool bearings Carbontex and stainless steel drag washers from Smooth Drag Ceramic line guide pawl Polished brake drum, clutch release, spool shaft end, drag discs, driveshaft stud Lubed with Yamaha marine grease, TSI301 in the level wind assembly and spool shaft end, TSI321 in the bearings, Cal's on the drag His birthday party is tomorrow and me and his wife will hand it on over. He's going to be pretty dang happy!

Exactly, and a decent reel doesn't need to cost too terribly much. Take the Fuego CT and Fuego LT, they are both excellent workhorse reels. Nothing flashy, but they work day in and day out and will last many years and be reasonably smooth. The SLX reels are also very similar in that regard. You get a lot of reel for the money in those models. They cut out the bling and retain many features of their higher end cousins. Most of my reels fall in that category and none have ever given me issues. Every one of them has its own small quirk, but that's to be expected. It wasn't until I fell down the black hole of BFS that I really started spending money on reels. For everything but BFS fishing I use more middle of the road reels.

KTF spool? Beautiful!

A deeper spool would be better for holding a larger amount of heavier line. That's The primary benefit. I wouldn't say it's an upgrade or downgrade, it's just an option that can expand the capabilities of the reel. Who is making the spool? I'm interested because I want to fish steelhead with my Alphas CT SV and it uses the same spool as the Steez.

The $100 to $200 price point gets you an outstanding rod that will strike a nice medium between weight and sensitivity. This is the category I typically shop and can't say I've been displeased with any of them. While I haven't sought out rods above that price point, friends do have them and they are great pieces of gear, but for the most part I don't feel they're worth the sometimes exponentially higher cost. With reels, I tend to go a little overboard. I'm a sucker for Japanese made Daiwa and Shimano reels and they can and do cost, but man are they smooth and refined feeling. That's not to knock the Thai and Malaysian built products, there's some very good ones that I own, but they don't have the feel of something out of Japan. Additionally, I often find myself shopping Japanese sites to buy reels that just aren't sold here in the states. It pains me that we don't get products like the HRF, Morethan, and Alphas on our shores.

A new set of winter tires, mine are 4 seasons old and worn pretty good. On the fishing side of things, probably not much as me and the wife have a child due in March.

The new Daiwa Luvias LT is now made in China. The very first run of the new model were made in Japan but I'm wondering if the pandemic had something to do with it. I have a 2000S-XH I use for brook trout and thought I was buying a Japanese made product. When I emailed Japan Tackle they told me what was going on then updated their website accordingly.

I own a few trout baitcast setups; Daiwa Alphas Air Stream Custom with a Major Craft Troutino 4'10" UL, a Daiwa Alphas CT SV with a Major Craft Finetail 6' L, and a Revo ALC-BF7 with a Kuying Teton 5'2" SUL. All three setups work well within their limits. The Alphas CT SV/Finetail setup gets the most use as it's the most versatile of the bunch.

If he can open up the budget, a Fuego CT in the 7.3 ratio would be very hard to beat. It's probably the best baitcaster out there under the $100 price point and shares much with the Tatula CT. The only noteworthy differences are the lack of two handle bearings and the T-wing aperture, other than that they are almost the same. If you guys keep your eyes peeled for a sale, you can get one for $75 to $85. Sometimes they even get down to the $60 mark.

You'll need access to an arbor press to remove the bearing. You can use a socket slightly smaller in diameter than the bearing to press out the old one. You'll need part# 22014.

Tackle Trap has it https://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10732

You will want to swap out the Teflon drags for Carbontex as well. The newer red 5000 is nearly the same as a 5500 C3, except it uses spool bushings, a bushing level wind, and a Teflon graphite drag. Other than those small differences, everything between them will completely swap over. Post early 90s 4000/5000/6000 size Ambassadeurs are very modular, parts from one model will work in another. Spools, bearings, line guides, side plates, frames, brake plates, gears, handles, and star wheels are all direct swaps. It's like Barbie for fishermen. Here's a build I did for a customer of mine, this reel started life exactly like your 5000. Now it has two spool bearings, a chromed brass frame from an early 5500C, lightweight spool from a newer 5500C3, stainless gears from a 6500HCL, and an older style new production line guide from Simon Shimomura. She uses it fishing for king salmon.

Yes indeed!

I fish new reels and I fish Ambassadeurs. When tuned for lighter baits, a newer 4600 C3/C4 will cast 1/4 ounce almost as effortlessly as a modern low profile. It's all in the thumb, how your rod loads, which lubes you're using and where, and how you have the centrifugal brake set up. The spool and line guide used on the newer Ambassadeurs are much, much lighter than what was used less than a decade ago. The newer line guide weighs 2 grams, older line guide is closer to 7 grams. With the older 4600 spool, those came in at 21 grams, a newer 4600 spool tips the scale at 14 grams, less than any of my low profile reels outside of my BFS gear. On a ML or M power rod, it's most certainly more than capable. You can find the newer lighter spools and line guides on eBay, they are usually sold for around $20 +/-.

I just came back from fish boot camp. Caught kings all day yesterday and still beat up from it. My arms and back are nice and sore lol.

Hedgehog Studio, Tackle Trap, Digitaka, Japan Tackle, Ichiban Tackle, and 7 Palms all have what you want.

They're probably the most popular reels for musky here on Lake St Clair among non professional anglers, but the charters typically use Penns since they can take repeated abuse for seasons on end. While the Abus are nice reels, the hardcore musky fishermen will go through a set of gears every two or three seasons, but the Penns just keep on going. I've never had to replace Penn gears for a musky charter, but I get a fair amount of Ambassadeurs in requiring new gears. The Penns usually need nothing more than a cleaning and lube and sometimes a failed AR pawl spring, but that's about it.

Centrifugal brakes work at the beginning of the cast as that's when the spool is spinning the fastest. When you launch your bait, those brake blocks move outward and make contact with the brake drum (or plate depending on reel) to slow the spool. If you're adjusting spool tension, that tension is applied throughout the entire cast since the tightening of the cap applies pressure to the inner races of the spool bearings. Adjusting spool tension is fine to a point, but it can also introduce undue stress on your spool bearings if you overdo it. Personally, I'd work on my thumb more than I would be messing with the spool tension. You want your tension set to where very little side play is present, and some reels you don't want any at all. Experiment.

I have a Mitchell 300 and a 408. They're outright coffee grinders, but man are they a hoot to fish with. I love how the bail snaps shut like a mousetrap, puts a smile on my face every time.

Or if you're lazy, look at the used reels on eBay.

If you market to salmon and steelhead fishermen, it can mean very much. It's a different style of fishing though where free spool is paramount for being able to attain nice long drifts on the river. The bulk of my business comes from customers and charters that float or drift the rivers for chrome torpedoes.

I was using snap beans in northern MI fishing brook trout this past weekend, that dark purple color was the ticket Saturday morning. Had a nice lunch by the campfire that afternoon. Brookies cooked in bacon grease, can't go to a restaurant and order that